Chapter 34: Company
“The crazy thing is,” I said, “I could almost see myself enjoying it.”
Lena’s eyebrows shot up.
“I never had a problem with invasion zones!” I spread my hands. “Invasion zones. I never liked people just popping into somebody’s world because they had the temerity to want to play coop, but specific areas having world PVP? That seemed cool to me. You know that. We ran as Aldrich Faithful together!”
Dark Souls, the series that popularized invasion PVP, had started to deemphasize it by its third installment. It mostly only happened to people who played in big online groups. The exceptions were certain sections where, for story reasons, lots of invaders were supposed to team up in in-game covenants like Aldrich Faithful. Any online player who passed through there was fair game.
I thought it was a fair game, when it happened in an area specifically designed for PVP. Something to spice up the experience, not constant griefing. It was the only place Lena had ever been able to convince me to play on the invader side.
“Not for very long,” she muttered. “You spent a lot more time as a blue phantom.”
Blues were part of a PVP, as well, but they defended other players from invasion. “Still engaging with the system.”
She didn’t respond.
“You wanted us to do a lot more invading, huh?”
“It would’ve been cool,” she said. “You and me, teaming up to ambush people.”
“Maybe when we’re through all this,” I said, “we can give it another shot.”
She smiled, briefly. “And doing it at Imagined Worlds?”
I shook my head.
The first time Donica and I visited the construction site, I’d imagined Third Eye Productions buying a space like that and turning it into exactly the kind of invasion zone Omar seemed to be sponsoring.
Of course, I’d discovered a lot more about both Third Eye and the construction site after that. You couldn’t drag me back to the site. And as for invasion zones?
“It’s a lot less appealing when somebody going too far could legit hurt us,” I said.
Lena shrank into her chair. “Or we could screw up and hurt somebody else.”
“Or that.”
Bernie murmured, so I lifted him over Lena’s head and back into her lap. She wrapped her arms around him, and I put mine around her shoulders.
We stayed like that for a while, silent except for the susurration of Bernie’s breaths. I knew Lena’s wings were moving with her heartbeat because they created patterns of hot and cold air against my chest.
Eventually, I raised my eyes to the screen again. I reread the rules. “If the disqualifications extend to the preliminaries too, maybe it’s not so bad.”
“People would have to play carefully,” Lena said. “But would they be careful not to hurt anybody, or careful not to get caught?”
“I guess it depends on how easy it would be for OdysseyZZ to keep an eye on us in his building.”
Lena sat up. “It sounds like we need to know more about the building.”
“You’re still thinking about going, then?” I asked.
She glanced up at me. “If you didn’t think I was, why did you bring up a reason it might not be that dangerous?”
“To reflect my fundamentally sunny disposition?”
She turned Bernie around on her lap so they could share an incredulous look.
I ran my fingers through my hair. “I don’t think there’s much chance of you not going. Us not going. Maybe not competing, but at least acting as commentators. We almost have to. Zhizhi was right that it’s the best place to go public about the magic stuff.”
“I wonder what this Omar guy thinks about magic,” Lena said. “He’s got to know, right?”
I’d already figured he did, just because he seemed to have gotten ahead of us in Third Eye. Now? I had no doubt. “If you didn’t know there would be a problem with attacking players who were out of HP, why make a rule against it?”
“Exactly,” Lena said. “You know, we talked about people wanting to silence us. Are we sure we’re not going to start talking in front of, like, the only person who actually knows to do that?”
“We’re definitely not sure of that,” I said. “If we’re streaming it live, though, how much could he do to stop us?”
“That probably depends on how much more of the magic he’s figured out than we have.”
I grinned. “If he crashes our stream and blasts us with actual magic to shut us up, it’s not exactly going to make us sound less plausible.”
“Which doesn’t do us a lot of good if he uses that actual magic to freaking kill us,” Lena said.
“I’m just saying, if his only incentive to stop us is to keep us from telling people the magic is real, he gains nothing from showing it off.” Still, her reminder sobered me right up. “I guess a better question is, does he actually want to keep the secret? Sticking a bunch of cameras on people while they do high intensity Third Eye shit strikes me as a good way to rack up an overwhelming amount of video evidence.”
Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.
“What would that get him?” she asked.
“What does keeping it a secret get him? A competitive advantage if he can use it for money or power, but he’d have to know that’s not going to last. And he already seems to have a ton of advantages.”
“No kidding,” Lena said. “I’m kind of wishing I’d scrounged up another five thousand dollars. My custom personification is awesome, but the First Circle rewards seem way more useful.”
“If that’s why he’s got so much more than we do,” I said.
“What’s your theory?” she asked. “Is he that much better of a player, or that much luckier?”
“Better, luckier, backed at a higher level...” I tapped my finger against the back of my head. “I mean it could be all of those. But what if he’s got a different kind of advantage?”
Lena exchanged a glance with Bernie. “Like...?”
Something had been nagging at the back of my mind. I just needed to see a little more evidence to clarify it. I held up my hand to forestall Lena’s question and scooted onto my computer chair. “Gimme a sec.”
“Okay.” She turned back to her own PC and looked over the rules page again.
After a quick detour to Omar’s Wikipedia page to find the link I wanted, I found myself looking at the same logo. Different header, though. This website, slicker and more conventional in its layout, was for Odyssey Ventures. Omar had founded it second, but folded both his original company (a VR game studio that hadn’t produced a new game in seven years) and the two new ones he’d started under its umbrella.
I wasn’t very interested in a venture capital company, especially since its history of purchasing and dismantling other companies suggested it leaned toward the vulture side of the business. Nor did I care about whatever crypto shit Omar was into, so I had no intention of clicking through to Odyssey Futures, his third and seemingly most successful business. Benji’s plight had killed whatever curiosity I might’ve had about it.
Imagined Worlds, though.
I clicked through to it. Same logo, but a whole new, theoretically more tourist-friendly, set of iconography.
Not that friendly, apparently. Right below the header and the park’s mascot (a chibi version of an ancient Greek warrior with an enormous curly beard; with the minimalist style of the illustrations, he reminded me of a character out of a Belgian comic) was a notification that Imagined Worlds was “closed for renovations.” In February! It should’ve been the heart of Florida tourist season.
I wasn’t interested in whether the park was a commercial success or not, though. I wanted to know how it worked.
The website didn’t help much, since it mostly talked up how much “fun for the whole family” it would be. I revised my original impression that Omar was going to turn a “building” into an invasion zone. It seemed he had a whole campus. Amidst all the tourist come-ons, however, I did find what I’d been looking for.
“Right here,” I said.
Lena tilted on her chair until her head rested against my arm. She scanned my screen. “Where?”
I read off the line. It was a little more detailed than the Wikipedia entry, if also a lot more breathlessly positive. “With our proprietary Oracle View camera technology, you’ll be able to experience your imagination coming to life all around you. Our world, our goggles, and your phone will work together to create an unforgettable experience.”
“That doesn’t sound a million miles off from how Third Eye works.” Lena straightened up in an instant. “Wait, do you think he really is involved with the devs?”
“I’m not sure about that,” I said. “Think about how hooked we were, even before we found out about the magic.”
Her shoulders slumped. “I guess you’re right. What about it interested you, then?”
“How their system connects to the guest’s phones. It sounds like it’s cloning a camera filter onto them.”
Lena looked at her own phone. “Like how Zhizhi’s camera borrowed Miguel’s Third Eye filter at the park the other day.”
“If Omar has a way to spread the Third Eye filter to other devices, and he owns hundreds of cameras, and he employs hundreds of people –”
“He’s got a way to industrialize collecting Materials!”
I nodded.
“Son of a bitch!” She punched her palm and laughed.
I didn’t crack a smile. The thought of Omar dragooning his employees into finding Materials for him annoyed me. The rest of us stood no chance of making up for an advantage like that.
It did make me wonder, though.
I did a quick news search for Imagined Worlds. Plenty of hits about how it had closed up shop in the middle of tourist season. None about its staff being laid off.
How many people did a VR amusement center employ?
Enough to scour most of Florida for Materials?
Pressing his employees into a digital scavenger hunt gave Omar a massive advantage in Third Eye, but if he’d initially done it so he didn’t have to lay them off from his failing park, I supposed I couldn’t hold it against him.
Much.
“This isn’t all bad news for us,” Lena said.
“How do you figure?” I asked.
“First of all, we’ve got the ability to do this with cameras, too. That means Zhizhi can help us scout, not just record us while we do it. Or even Benji!”
“I think Benji’s got more on his mind than helping us look for impossible objects, Lena.”
“So maybe he needs something to take his mind off it.” She gave Bernie’s chin a scratch. “Hey, like that website says. It could be ‘fun for the whole family!’”
“It’s not going to be that fun for somebody who doesn’t get Materials out of it,” I said.
She shrugged. “Depends on what you’re into.”
I shook my head.
“I’m just saying –” Lena began.
I didn’t get to hear the rest of what she was just saying, because the front door opened and Benji stepped inside. He hauled a couple of grocery bags in one hand and a case of Fat Tire beer in the other.
He saw us at our computers and gave the subtlest shake of his head. I don’t think Lena caught it, but I did and had to fight down a scowl.
I stood up and reached for the bags. “I’ll get those put away. Let me know how much we owe you.”
He strode to the fridge instead. “I think I can cover the price of groceries, Cameron.”
“Come on, man, you need to save up. We’ll end up eating some of this stuff, we should pay for it.” I regretted my words when I saw him pull out a package of high quality hamburger and a couple of premium frozen dinners. Not that I’d complain about eating those, but no way would Lena or I splurge on buying them.
“I’m not going to get the money back by pinching pennies at Safeway.” Benji shooed me away. “I got this. Go back to your game.”
“Actually,” I said, “Lena and I were checking out something for work.”
He glanced at me out of the corner of his eye.
He froze.
He pushed past me, around the counter, leaving the frozen and refrigerated food he’d bought to thaw.
I reached for his arm, but he ignored me. I said, “What?”
Lena spun her chair as he approached the computers. “Sup, Benji?”
He stared at our screens.
Specifically, at the logo in the upper left of both.
“Since when,” he asked, “do you two work for the son of a bitch who stole our family’s money?”